Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has hit back at criticism of taking the long haul to Qatar for commentary work with Al Jazeera.

Ferdinand withdrew from the England squad because of "the detailed pre-planned training and medical programme" he must follow to maintain his fitness.

Ferdinand tweeted: "1) Flown out for some pre-planned downtime...with a bit of punditry thrown in for a game I would have watched anyway..."

And then: "No different from what I done on the last 10day international break...thank you guys."

And finally: "Haters are gonna hate...also assume everything...although it must be the gospel truth based on assumptions!"